Medford Rotary Club and Josh the Otter teach water safety to Kindergartners

Thursday

Jun 5, 2014 at 1:57 PM

By Alex Ruppenthalaruppenthal@wickedlocal.com

Mary Sbuttoni remembers walking around Malden’s Fellsmere Pond one day with a friend as a teenager and having a feeling something was wrong."I didn’t really know what was going on," she said "I wanted to say something, but the person I was with said, ‘No, no.’ And then next thing you know the lifeguards are trying to rescue him. And then he drowned."The event stuck with Sbuttoni."I felt like I didn’t listen to my intuition, and I regretted that," she said.Sbuttoni, a member of the Medford Rotary Club, has been spearheading the group’s new water safety awareness program for Kindergarten students in Medford.Sbuttoni and other Rotary Club members visited all of Medford’s schools, public and parochial, to read a book entitled "Josh the Baby Otter," to classes.The water safety campaign was begun by two Nebraska parents whose 2-year-old son, Joshua, died in 2008, three days after falling into the family pool.Through the Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Foundation, Blake and Kathy Collingsworth have distributed more than 120,000 copies of the book, which teaches water safety.The foundation also rents out a Josh the Otter costume, which Medford Rotary Club members donned during trips to local schools."It’s kind of an honor," Sbuttoni said. "I think they have several [of the costumes]."In addition to Sbuttoni’s personal experience with a drowning, statistics back up the danger of water, especially with children.According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, drowning is the leading cause of unintentional death for children ages 1 to 4 and the second-leading cause of unintentional death for all children ages 1 to 14."Kids sometimes, they’re so young and they think they’re invincible," Sbuttoni said. "Even when we went to one of the schools, a girl went, ‘I can go in the water by myself. I can swim by myself.’"Despite the danger water presents, the Safe Kids Coalition says 58 percent of parents don’t consider drowning a threat to their children. Sbuttoni said she learned from the Collingsworths that they didn’t stress water safety with Joshua before he died."They realized that even though they thought they were being safe and taking all kinds of precautions, they didn’t really say, ‘Don’t go around water when we’re not there with you,’" she said. "They really want to get that message out."Although the topic at hand it a heavy one, Josh the Otter seems the perfect spokesperson for kids, who are quickly won over by the mascot."At first they’re like, ‘Is there a person in there?’" Sbuttoni said. "They’re kind of skeptical. But then they were surrounding [Josh] and giving [him] hugs."By the end of the presentations, Sbutton said kids start shouting, "I love you, Josh!"Thanks to a grant, the club has distributed 650 "Josh the Otter" books, along with coloring books and CDs, to local schools.The club has posted photos of members in the Josh the Otter costume with students from different Medford schools, which have been quite popular on social media sites like Facebook."It’s been fun," Sbuttoni said. "The kids just love the Josh the Otter costume. You have to have time at the end because they all want to hug him or high-five him."ONLINECheck out photos from Josh’s visits to local schools and other Medford locations at wickedlocalmedford.com!